Plastic and aluminium can lead to hormonal imbalance and deprive children of essential minerals from the body. Read here to know how.

You should pack your child's lunch in steel lunch box and avoid using aluminium foil

Highlights

Wrap your child's food in muslin cloth

Pack it in a steel lunch box

It will facilitate better growth of children and make them less cranky

Parents, what is it that you packing your kid's lunch in? Aluminium foil, plastic food wrap or plastic lunch box are some of the common options. However, you might be surprised to know that none of these are doing any good to your child's health. Raising awareness about this is celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar, who recently went live on Facebook to talk about how plastic lunch boxes and aluminium foils should not be used for packing kids' lunch. In the video, she says that plastic and aluminium can lead to hormonal imbalance and deprive children of essential minerals from the body.

What is the alternative?

According to Rujuta, steel lunch boxes with food wrapped in muslin cloth can be great for kids' health. Steel bottles or copper bottles should be used as a replacement for plastic water bottles.

How plastic lunch boxes and aluminium foils are harming kids?

It is important to know that food picks up chemicals or substances from the material that is packed in. This is especially true when you pack hot food.

Plastic food wraps might offer a lot of convenience in terms of packing and storing food. But did you know that plastic leeches harmful chemicals known as xenoestrogens. These chemicals mimic estrogen hormone in the body, informs Rujuta, while adding that this can disturb hormonal balance in children at their growing stage.

Aluminium foil has somewhat similar effect on food. Even though they have been used for wrapping rotis, paranthas and numerous other food items. And while companies manufacturing these aluminium foils claim that they keep food warm (when they clearly don't), you will be shocked to know that these foils leech Aluminium into food. Once this food is inside the body, it replaces Zinc, which is an important mineral for functioning of insulin. Impaired functioning of insulin can cause obesity, PCOD, fatty liver and diabetes to name a very few.

Packing nutrient-rich food to a non-plastic and non-aluminium source can have a positive impact on your child's health. Rujuta mentions that it can reduce constipation and illness, cut down the child's cranky behaviour, help him/her have better hair, skin and nails, and will also facilitate optimum growth and hormonal balance.

So, it's time you ditch all the plastic lunch boxes and go buy some traditional steel lunch boxes and even some muslin cloth for packing both yours and your child's lunch.

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.